SOCAR approves sale of share in Star media holding
By Aynur Jafarova
Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR has approved the sale of its share in the Turkish Star media holding.
"SOCAR is an international business company which purchases various assets depending on their economic efficiency and in the case of economic benefits sells them," Nizamaddin Guliyev, Head of the Public Relations Department of SOCAR told Trend Agency.
Guliyev also noted the issue of share sale is associated with fluctuations in the market value of those assets and economic efficiency.
Earlier, a number of media outlets reported that SOCAR was in talks with Turkish businessman Fettah Tamince to sell its 50 percent stake in Turkey's Star media group. Tamince and Sancak are both known as close to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party.
Star media group, which SOCAR jointly owned with businessman Ethem Sancak, consists of Star newspaper and a couple of television channels.
Guliyev went on to note that SOCAR decided to sell the assets due to non-implementation of control of Star media holding.
Azerbaijan and Turkey's relations have always been strong due to their common culture and history and the mutual intelligibility of Turkish and Azerbaijani languages.
Economic projects, jointly implemented by Azerbaijan and Turkey, are bringing these countries together and strengthening their cooperation. These two countries are connected by several important regional projects, including the Baku-Supsa, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipelines, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas line, and TANAP.
Azerbaijan and Turkey's economies and cooperation have reached a high level. SOCAR is one of the world's most well-established oil companies, active in Turkey since May 30, 2008. SOCAR is involved in a number of major investment projects in Turkey, including the construction of TANAP, Star refinery, and others.
Azerbaijan's energy giant SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad, is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.
Currently, the company owns gas stations in Azerbaijan, Switzerland, Georgia and Ukraine. It has representative offices in Georgia, Turkey, Romania, Austria, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Britain, Iran, Germany and Ukraine, and trading companies in Switzerland, Singapore, Vietnam, Nigeria, and other countries.